14 Social Media Trends for 2014

With more and more brands hopping on the social media bandwagon in 2013, there are bound to be some shifts in the way we use it for business.

We’re seeing hashtags show up in print advertising and television commercials, and short-form videos like Vine and Instagram Videos becoming more mainstream. You might say social media is here to stay.

So it’s fair to ask what you can expect in the coming year in social media marketing. To answer that question, I’ve scoured some of the best lists on the web and gathered some of the top social media trends for 2014 for you.

Social Media Trends for 2014

1. The rise of social paid advertising.

All the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) now offer paid advertising, and they’ll continue to work on making it better. Just looking at some stats, it appears that brands will want to use it:

Twitter offers three different kinds of paid advertising: promoted accounts, tweets, and trends.

2. Specialized social media platforms and sites are going to become more popular.

For the same reason you target your business and marketing, soon you’ll be able to target your social media campaigns.

Some existing platforms like LinkedIn already let you target particular segments and audiences with your updates. However if you want to reach an even more specific audience, try looking at a niche social media platform. Some examples include Untappd, Ravelry, Gentlemint, ThirdAge, and Meet Pips.

3. Google+ will become a major factor in social media.

Often an afterthought to many social media campaigns, Google+ will see an increased presence in 2014.

Google reports that over 300 million people visit G+ every month. It’s a big part of their search algorithm, it rewards sites with high SEO IQ, and when you add in Google Authorship, it’s easy to see why.

4. Brands have to think of themselves as publishers.

As quality content continues to be important, brands are realizing that they need to hire good writers to work along with their marketing staff.

They’re realizing the value in assembling a good team of writers, marketers, analysts, and designers. Working with their own newsroom-like departments, or outside vendors like Press Feed will allow them to easily create a well-rounded and robust content strategy that offers everything from social, mobile, and graphic content.

5. Employee advocacy will be formalized.

Forward-thinking brands will codify processes and procedures for their staff that will empower their employees to speak up for the brand (and not be penalized).

Innovative companies will use social media to gain valuable insight into what’s happening within their company, so they can make better future business decisions.

6. Social media jobs will change drastically this year.

It’s out with the Social Media Manager, and in with the SEO Specialist, Social Media Strategist, Online Community Manager, Social Media Marketing Manager, Social Media Marketing Coordinator, and Blogger or Social Media Copywriter (say Business Insider and Hootsuite).

7. Big business will use social media even more in their campaigns.

According to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, they’ll use it to create brand awareness, to hire new staff, drive lead generation, and ultimately, serve customers better.

We live more and more of our lives online, so it only makes sense that brands will continue their research into social media and how it can benefit their bottom line.

8. Hashtags will be everywhere.

You’ve already noticed them on-screen in television, and they’re quoted all the time in ads and news reports—now FB is using them too. Make sure you know what hashtags are and how to use them.

9. Pay attention to news trends and use them.

Gary Vaynerchuck calls this “trendjacking” in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. It means you use a trending news topic, create social media content for it, and release it right away. It’s only useful for that period in time; however, it can be extremely powerful and compelling.

10. Quality content will be even more important.

Ann Handley of Marketing Profs says it’s the foundation to all good content, regardless of content type. While I won’t quote the “should be retired” cliche about content and royalty, it is true. Produce only quality content, and you’ll win on social media.

11. Content must be relevant to be useful.

Consumers are easier to target in today’s market, so making the experience relevant will be important. That means using the right social media platform, hashtags and keywords, and producing the right compelling content to engage your followers.

Companies like ThinkGeekencourage users to submit Action Shots of themselves using the products, which is an easy way to measure the ROI of their products and social media reach.

12. Becoming more mobile.

As tablets and smartphones get more powerful, we’re using them more and more on the go. According to a Prosper Insights report, only 33% of mobile websites are “very good,” which means there’s a lot of room for improvement.

13. Brands will use more video, in particular, micro-video.

This is an extension of the fact that people like to consume video on their mobile devices.

The video platforms are becoming more reliable and brands are able to monetize them more easily. Video producers are capitalizing on this, and creating videos for brands that are of high quality and are highly entertaining.

14. SlideShare becomes a key influencer.

With over 60 million monthly visitors, and 130 million pageviews, SlideShare is one of the most visited websites in the world. Users can share presentations directly from the site, or embed them in their own.

Now you

Of course these aren’t the only social media trends out there, since, by its very nature, social media is fluid and dynamic. But I think these are the biggest ones that we’ll see in business over the next 12 months.

Do you agree? What trends do you think will be big in 2014? Let me know in the comments.

Julia Borgini helps Geeks sell their stuff. A self-proclaimed Geek & writer, she works with B2B technology & sports companies, creating helpful content & copy for their lead generation and content marketing programs. Follow her on Twitter @spacebarpress to see what she's writing about now.

Comments

I’m looking for the rise of GIFs in marketing. This year will see the introduction of the GIFy awards (www.thegifys.com) and Subway’s breakthrough campaign just last week (www.giphy.com/subway) I think we’re heading into strange new territory: viral banner ads!

Thanks for the info Shane. I hadn’t heard of the GIFy awards. I agree though, it’ll be interesting to see if they become popular with advertisers this year. From the highs of Subway’s campaign to the lows of Kmart’s holiday “Giffing out” campaign, it seems they’re a little more difficult to understand than other mediums. At least for advertising, that is.

Some good food for thought there; in my interest area, I think your point #5 has definitely got legs. I see employee advocacy becoming one of the fastest-growing areas of social-media marketing as an increasing number of very capable platforms hit the market. As you say, employers are starting to see their employees’ social-media networks as business-communications channels rather than time-wasters at work …

Thanks Julia, useful post
If you can maybe give some info about local social networks (like meetey.com, circles etc.) it would be great because it feels like it’s one of the biggest social media trends for 2014

Hi Adam, Interesting, hadn’t heard of the local social network scene, but a quick search shows it’s a pretty big thing out there. For consumers though, IMO. The focus of this article was more on the business side, so for the moment, it’s not going to have as big an impact on big business as it might on consumers as a whole.

The elephant in the room re: social media is inherent in the name ‘social media’ … with the emphasis on ‘social’. People use social media outlets for social activities. They are not interested in developing relationships with brands. Digital marketing will emerge as viable and marketable at some point – but what is going on now is a money sinkhole for advertisers who switch more and more marketing dollars into outlets with inflated viewing numbers and exaggerated value on click thrus that do not realisticaly generate actual sales. Digital marketing today does work fantastically for particular products within particular contexts only.

Yes Diane, I agree that the “social” part of social media is important, though I do disagree with you on people not wanting to develop relationships with brands through it. I think it’s a great entry-point for brands to figure out what their consumers are saying about them, and an easy way to start a dialogue.

As you say, where marketers and brands get it wrong is when they use it as their ONLY vehicle and touch point with their consumers and prospects. It shouldn’t be used as the ONLY pipeline to their audience, but as ONE of the pipelines. It’s more of a tool that should be used IN CONJUNCTION with other things like case studies, sales calls/emails, trade shows, etc.

Social media marketing is working well for particular products in particular contexts because it’s still so new. That’s the only way we’ve really seen how it can be used. But it’ll continue to evolve and be used in new & different ways. THAT’s what I’m excited to see.

Over the years, social media has never failed to surprise the users. It remains to be seen what kind of changes advancements in social media will bring this year. Using high quality content on social media will continue to help businesses perform better as a whole. But the concept of content has changed significantly over the last few years. Spread your online existence across a number of social media websites.

Nice post, According to the report, 60% of marketers were using social listening strategies in 2013 and 24% plan to do so in 2014. Social listening offers opportunities to interact directly with consumers.

Thanks Julia. There are some interesting things here and I think point #1 has been happening for some time now. More businesses have been trying social media paid ads to help not only grow their social following but to also drive traffic and sales to their websites. Great stuff though!

I totally agree with your post. Social media marketing are really important specially in 2014. But Only one thing I mention. Use customer service support on your website. Because its important for your customer satisfaction.

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